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What’s the difference between a condo and a co-op? The simplistic answer is that with a condo you own your unit plus a share in the common elements. You can take out a mortgage on your unit and only you are responsible for that mortgage. With a co-op, the co-op owns the building and you own a share in the co-op – so everyone would be affected financially if there were a mortgage default. In either situation, you’d pay a monthly fee for your share of costs.

New York City has a lot of co-ops, often costing many millions of dollars for a unit. You may have read about co-ops turning down famous people because they felt the publicity would be disruptive.

In St Petersburg, there are very few co-ops, but we do have them. For example, Waterfront Park, a building restricted to those 55 and older, is a co-op in downtown St Pete. There are currently three units available for sale, two 1 bedroom units for $60,000 and $80,000 and one 2 bedroom unit for $120,000. The building is old – from the 1950s, with jalousie windows and wall/window air conditioning.

Another downtown St Pete co-op is the Flori De Leon, also for age 55 and older, built in the 1920s. In the Old Northeast. Between 4th St and 9th St are Lake Palms and Suncoast Towers, both built in the 50s and both also age 55 and over.